CREATING NEW NORMALS

Every once in a while, I normally surprise myself with this in the zone super performance. When I am at it, it seems to me like I have been turned into another man. The whole wide world gets your attention when an event like that one happens to you. Remember when Obama, a little known politician spoke at the Democratic National Convention some years back?

The boy was in the zone (excuse the language). When David Rudisha set a new Olympic record for 800 meters, the did this in the zone. Yet you have to note that these heroics never just happened by chance or by lack. 

Both these great icons in the world had some input to their splendid perfomances behind the scenes. That is what matters. What I do today towards my vision is most important than what the world recognizes. If I do not do today, then I cannot expect to be recognized tomorrow.

The doings of today are sometimes uneventful, uncomfortable, difficult and laborious. They are what counts. Sooner or later we are moving in stride, we are 'running with a smile', and are ready to take it to the next level. The next level happens when you enter into the zone after years of consistent preparation.

At such times, I realize that the in the zone performance could easily become two things:

1. A burden: 
2. A campsite:

A burden because I do not want to go back to levels below this performance. I think I love that kind of a burden, always spurring me to be better.

A campsite because I have intentionally built in enough effort to sustain the in the zone super perfomance to last as a foundation.The key word here is intention.

As much as I love the effects of performing in the zone, I have to tell you that a one off performance is at best, mediocre. When the stakes are raised and I am competing against myself, I need to realize that the in the zone performance will now become my new normal.

To be honest, some of those times catch me off-guard. Yet even if that is so, I have realized that the biggest component of delivering wowing and awesome fruits of my vision is that thing called consistency. The more I dwell in my forte, the more I fortify myself.

Sometimes this can be so benign that I would not even realize what daily consistency is doing to me and my vision. It can be so small in increment to the tune of a single degree. Yet over time this single degree coalesces to a mighty force that I am calling in the zone performance.

Crazy stuff happen when we are in the zone. The biggest reaper is ourselves, no doubt about that.

My only challenge is the thing called inconsistency. Why should there be an awesome new level in one's marriage for a day, or a week...and then you revert back to the 'good old days?'. Why should there be an awesome delivery in my talk to one group, and then I revert back to the normal?

Why should I run 10 Km under 30 minutes today and do the same well over 40 minutes next week?

We ought to realize that we need to be in the race of ascendency, always competing against ourselves, making our in the zone performances the foundation of our next level.

This is one of the surest ways of curing mediocrity in our lives and most certainly in our pursuit of the fulfillment of our vision.

May the stakes be raised today!

Have a consistent week, won't you?

FORM ONE ANYTIME!

In 1993, I was the first form one to report to school. Partly because my parents were so happy and so eager to see me admitted on one of the most prestigious schools in the province. That was wrong according to the un-written code of being 'cool' in school. You don't just come on the first day....you bid your time.

I have to tell you that that dreaded thing called bullying that form ones go through happened to me. I think all bullies are miscreants...and I am not biased to say this. There are some who bullied me that are reading this...some are dead, others are whatever place they are in the world. I wonder how we would great each other today when we meet...few decades later.

Yet the experience of being a form one will always be one of those fundamental 'shapers' of my life. To be honest with you, despite the negatives of bullying and all the discomforts that I faced there, I have come to realize that I would gladly go back to that situation where I am a form one once again.

In fact, I would do that again and again and again as the chances come. You know why? Form ones grow! Pretty soon they catch up with the culture at school. They get up to speed with the lingo...and smart ones can easily pretend to be form two in less than a week!

Seriously, we have those form one situations all around us. You are newly married...guess what? You are a form one of sorts in that arena. You are about to grow. You are about to learn some new things. You had better...since growth is good for us.

There is no point for us being in form one in theory...it is OK, but nothing replaces the tangible experience we gain when physically there.

You can read as much as you want (and I read a lot by the way) but when you get that new job as a sales executive, guess what? Form One once again! I think you get the point.

One thing that really gave me a culture shock in my first year of high-school and pretty much the rest of the four years I spent there was the stark realization that there were some guys that were way, and I mean way ahead of me 'upstairs'. Whereas from my rural school I came tops at the final exams, I found out that in my stream in form one, I was at best, 70th! How the mighty fall!

And that is a pretty good thing if you ask me. That is why our kids need to be exposed to as much competition as possible.

The same thing happened to me when I joined college. As much as I studied (and study I did...I remember people would come to the library to specifically see 'how Lawrence is studying'), there was still people way ahead of me...and to them it came naturally. 

Needless to say, as much as we love comfort, it is good to have form one situations as often as possible, that way, we tend to grow.

At the moment, my form one situation is driving a manual transmission Mercedes Benz...kind of a classic or let me call it a relic...but I got to tell you that in the roads in Kampala, I am thoroughly a form One this week. The car stops at crucial stages and roundabouts, hills and other unforeseen situations...I get 'bullied' by people who are seemingly more entitled to the road than I am...but you know what? I am growing.

Form One anytime!!!

Have a school-filled day wont you?

SUCCESS MY WAY!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light and not our darkness that most frighten us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It is not just in some of us, but it is in all of us. Ad as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do what same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”.

Yesterday as my wife and I and our 2 month old baby boy were watching ‘Coach Carter’, I found myself repeating the part containing the above excerpts again and again. Of course in my reading, I had read something about our light scaring us more than our darkness, so definitely, I was hooked.

This post is necessitated by that movie as well as is this morning’s excursion as I was setting up the ‘My Jog To Success’ Project.

I have been teaching of late about the Comfort Zone. We all love it. In fact, someone said that our present day comfort zones were at some point unconquered frontiers. Therefore, to me, success would effectively be defined as a continuous state of mastering challenges. Finally that word appears. Challenges. The whole post today is about challenges. By different mindsets, that word Challenge will receive varying reactions and responses.

For those who are passionate about making a change in the world and being successful, that world of challenges is a beauty. It forms the very rungs that help elevate the climber to personal success. However, to those who love their conquered frontiers and comfort zones, that word challenge denotes distress, unpleasantness and uneasiness that comes to interfere with the status quo. 

The why of this post is that I will embrace and take to challenges like a fish takes to water. They are what will shape and mould me not just to be good, but be great. Someone said “Good better, best, do not let it rest until the good is better and the better is best”. This happens in the zone of Challenge Mastery.

Some might think that the measure of success is the size of the dollar account you have. That is partly true. The whole truth for me is the measure of your mastery of challenges that inevitably makes one to continuously grow to the highest state of being-the good of others.

Challenges will always be there. In fact the moment you realize that you need to get out of your comfort zone…you already are up against a challenge. From the two events that I mentioned earlier, I came to realize that the greatest defeats are faced in the confines of our ‘conditioned’ state. For Example, when I for some reason, decide that I cannot become much, the result is inevitably dictated by that belief system and way of thinking.

 One of my goals this year is to run the MTN Kampala Marathon (10km) under One Hour. Of course talk is cheap. I can affirm that I will make it as much as I want, however if I do not go out there and PREPARE then most probably, that goal will not be a reality. So in my preparations, I have been running a stretch of seven kilometers every other morning. When I got started, I was doing that stretch in 41 minutes. Over time, I was able to cut that to 35 minutes, then few weeks ago, I have been steadily maintaining 33 minutes. Now, any athlete out there knows how crucial a micro second is in a race. Records are normally broken at hundredths of seconds. However, do not under-estimate the work behind breaking a record in fractions of seconds.

Today, something happened that made me change my philosophy. In my developing the My Jog To Success Framework, I have been encouraging people to ‘run their own race’. That my own success cannot and should not be judged by the yardstick of other people’s races. That is absolutely true. A great visionary sits down and DECIDES their race, and the terms of their race. I have come to believe that this is one of the greatest ingredients of progress….starting with the self, and racing against yourself. In fact, if you can race against yourself and make it, you are well on course to making an impact in the global ‘race’.

So today morning, as I was sweating it out in the last stretch of my race, something new happened. From nowhere, I heard footsteps, as if someone was running after me. Then I learnt something in that instant. The moment a challenge is presented to the human soul, there is this automatic tendency to raise the bar and maintain your place of supremacy. This guy came from nowhere and zoomed past me as if he was riding a motor bike. Inevitably, my pace increased. The bar had been raised. You see, every other day as I run that stretch, there is this belief that that is the home stretch and that I need to keep my reserve energy in place. That belief was challenged right there and then. Was I able to keep up with this new comer in the race? Yes I was! And guess what? Few meters ahead, this guy got tired and started walking. I maintained my PACE, albeit increased and overtook him.

When I got back home, I had hived off a whole ONE MINUTE of my normal routine in jogging. Ladies and gentlemen, a challenge arose…a man raised the bar…and a man improved. I submit to us that challenges are a welcome ingredient to Transformational life. They should be taken positively. They come in all shapes and sizes. A new recruit at your workplace who is a wizard in what he/she does threatens your existence…a new business empire in your own niche that is doing revolutionary stuff in the market…new dispensation or technology that your ‘competitors’ are leveraging to the full… and so on. Whichever way, a challenge once taken it will leave you a better human being. It will help you post a new personal best-something that you had up to now believed was impossible.

Challenges will help you get out of your comfort zone and conquer a new frontier. It is William Gladstone, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain who said: No man ever became good or great except through many and great mistakes. My parting shot is this: Are you facing a challenge? Good! You have an opportunity to post a personal best. Are you comfortable in your conquered frontier? That is a major threat to you. You need a challenge.

You see, winners do not wait for challenges to come find them….I have learnt that to be above the pack, you take action on your ideas and let the challenges find you while you are at it. Have a challenging week, wont you?